Coping
by Willowtreemuse
Summary: My take on what should happen in the aftermath of the Finn and Santana conflict next week, with a little peak into our favorite Lebanese Latina's psychology. Brittana goodness and Faberry if you squint. Spoilers!


Everyone froze as Santana ran off down the aisle utterly broken, all simultaneously starring at Finn whose face was burning from a combination of the slap, anger and perhaps even shame. No one seemed willing to move too suddenly for fear of diffusing something in the air, thick with tension and crackling with their hesitant breath. Finally after what seemed like an hour Rachel and Quinn broke from it like rocks through shattered glass with sigh and a growl respectively, and Brittany, who had previously been standing in the background trying not to cry, looked up as Rachel and Quinn glanced at each other in quick communication and stepped towards the tall boy. Their faces became hard as stone, although Rachel looked to be nearing a meltdown, her lower lip occasionally trembling. Brittany's eyes spat fire at Finn worthy of matching the other blonde's, but she didn't dare move closer as well and interfere. She just watched, carefully.

"We're over, Finn." Rachel said so lowly it was nearly a whisper.

"Wha-what? Rachel I…"

"No," barked Quinn, stepping closer to Finn's other side to mirror Rachel, effectively boxing him in against the front row center seat of the auditorium, "you don't get to talk right now. You've done enough of that to ruin a few LIVES today."

"I think you're being dramatic!" Shouted Finn, although a hint of meekness was beginning to creep into his voice, "Santana deserved-

"I don't care WHAT you think she deserved!" Rachel shrieked, jabbing her finger towards him and narrowing her eyes, "She's still a human being Finn! Capable of keeping her own secrets if she damn well wants too! They're not yours to shout down school corridors or blast out of a microphone!"

Quinn nodded, "Rachel's right. I think you need to leave Finn. None of us can really even stand to look at you right now."

Finn swallowed thickly, looking around at the space in front of him. Artie was looking down at his hands in his lap, wringing them nervously. Tina and Mike were flanking Brittany, each with a supporting hand on one of the girl's shoulders as she looked at Finn with pure hate in her eyes. The rest of the group looked just as shaken up or angry in turn, and Mercedes looked about ready to bolt after Santana even still, though she felt uncomfortable with doing so before Brittany got to her first.

"That was mighty harsh, Finn." Damian piped up meekly from the back, surprising them all, "I don' like the girl either, but her business is hers alone."

"Who said I needed an opinion from any of you?" Finn bit back, "You see how she is! She's miserable! If she would just grow up and realize that she's hiding from the world something that there's no need to hide, maybe she wouldn't…maybe she wouldn't be such a scared dyke BITCH."

Tina gasped; Brittany launched forward so suddenly that Mike had to grab her to keep her from falling, as even Finn reeled back in horror at the strength of his words. But there wasn't enough time for anyone to really process what was said, because at that moment there was a synchronized scream from the girls on either side of Finn,

"FUCK OFF!"

"YOU COMPLETE JERK!"

Rachel and Quinn launched themselves forward, managing to knock Finn back over the row of seats but misjudging the distance between them. Their hands dug violently into the startled boys flailing limbs as their heads knocked harshly together seemingly in mid-air with a dull thud. They both crashed back down almost in their original positions, dazed. Finn, legs up in the air and head down nearly vertically on the ground over the chair didn't look nearly ready to get up either, the only difference being that the Glee club left him there, but broke off into two's and rushed forward to help the girls to their feet. Puck pulled Quinn up off the ground and inspected her bleeding nose while Tina and Mercedes lifted Rachel off the ground and gently nudged her into Brittany's arms. Brittany, ever the nurturing type made sure the brunette stayed standing and held her face in her hands, "Just let me see," she murmured soothingly, "let me see." "It's just going to be a nasty bump, I think." She said lightly after running her fingers over Rachel's forehead in a quick inspection, "Quinn's nose is strong!"

"Yea Fabray, look at that honker!" Cat-called Puck, nudging Quinn's hip with his own as he continued to make sure her head was held upwards. The blood was stills streaming a bit, so she sounded stuffed when she whined out, "Be quiet, Puck. Please…"

"Sorry, B-Mama."

Brittany walked Rachel over to where the others were huddled around Quinn and took the blonde's hand in her own, tugging her forward so that she had one injured girl on either side. Walking with them both to where Finn lay, moaning and grumbling, she temporarily detached herself from them to lean over and heave him upright. Once he was somewhat standing straight again, though, she quickly let go of his hands as if burned.

"You apologized to me once, Finn, and I accepted it." She said sternly, but her resolve was somewhat broken after this comment and she sniffled, her eyes red as she said harshly "don't think I'm going to accept it anymore."

Finn nodded, looking down at the floor. Brittany nodded back in response even though he did not see her, and turned to ask Rachel and Quinn who were now slightly more alert than before to follow her. The rest of them didn't dare ask questions and watched the blonde walk off with the injured girls. Rachel and Quinn were still slightly confused, both throbbing in pain and as such were acting submissive, almost meek at Brittany's attention.

"B…where are you taking us?" Quinn asked, one hand holding the blood into her nose, to stop the streaming.

"Yea…Brittany, we just passed the nearest bathroom…" Rachel pointed out slowly, gesturing behind herself vaguely as they walked down the hall.

"Santana won't be in that one," Brittany said as if the answer was obvious.

"You're taking us to Santana?" Rachel exclaimed, hurting her own head further.

"Britt…I don't think that's a good idea, Santana needs you right now….just you." Quinn said softly, stopping in the hallway. Rachel followed her lead and stayed put, as some of Brittany's step lost its bounce and she turned to look at them, curiously.

"No. That's not how it works." She stated simply, dragging both girls down around a corner and pulling them into the next girl's room in sight.

They were greeted with an awful sight, Santana sitting curled up, broken against the mirror, tears streaming down her face and her eyes seemingly trained upon nothing. It's as if she was too exhausted to even blink or audibly cry. Quinn and Rachel, shocked, stepped back and unconsciously drew closer to each other as they let Brittany do her work.

Brittany moved forward carefully, sliding down the mirror to sit next to her girlfriend. She threw her arms around her and began slowly rocking back and forth, and this action for a reason unbeknownst to anyone but the two of them caused Santana to weakly chuckle, if only for a moment.

"Because it always works in the movies, right?" She asked with a small smile, sighing heavily immediately afterward. "I'm ruined, Britt…this is it for me. Frankenbitch ruined my last chance at feeling normal," She choked back a sob and buried her face into Brittany's neck, "of feeling ANYTHING without the whole school fucking knowing!

Rachel and Quinn watched from the background in shock and despair as the Latina crumbled into herself, falling completely limp in her lover's embrace and heaving out wracking sobs. Brittany mumbled sweet nothings that only Santana could fully hear for several moments, continuing to slightly rock herself back and forth, but so subtly that watching, they figured it was more for her own comfort than Santana's. After several heartbreaking minutes Santana finally looked up, and Brittany gently grabbed her chin and faced it towards her to prevent her from seeing their guests before she was properly warned. Rachel and Quinn, alert and less conscious of their own pain now after seeing anguish far worse than their own, steeled themselves and prepared for the worst.

Brittany leaned forward, still holding the brunette's face gently and pecked her on the lips so quickly it was barely even there, "I need to show you something, San. We have guests…"

"Britt, what-

Brittany shuffled away slowly and softly stood, keeping her girlfriend's hand in her own. Santana looked ready to lash out and defend her pride but Brittany quickly intervened, explaining hurriedly, "They saved you! Wait – I mean, not really! But Rachel and Quinn were really cool! After you slapped Finn and everyone figured out what happened they both totally attacked him."

Santana looked up at them for a moment in contemplation before using Brittany to lift herself up. Standing now but still leaning heavily on the other girl, she somewhat sharply asked, "Really?"

Quinn nodded. "Y-yeah…" Rachel stuttered out.

"That's…that's really cool, guys." She paused, her eyes darkening, "wait, did that bastard like, hit you back? I'll fucking kill him, I swear to – She lurched forward but Brittany held her by the waist.

"No, San. They kind of…well…they accidently attacked each other."

Santana looked even more confused than she was upon first seeing the pair.

"Head on collision." Quinn supplied, waving her hand in the air. She regretted doing so immediately when she realized it wasn't her free hand that she waved, and the blood flow immediately started again.

"Daamn, Q" Santana drawled out as Quinn scrambled to wipe the blood away from her mouth. "And Berry." She added after a beat. But she didn't seem to have anything to say beyond that. She just stared at the two in wonder for a while, while Brittany idly rubbed her lower back.

"Help me clean them up?" Brittany offered, gently. Santana looked at her.

"Look at them," She continued softly, "Quinn's bleeding all over the place and Rachel may look tough, but her forehead keeps getting bigger and I think if we don't sit her down…or something…she might pass out."

Santana gazed at her for a few more moments, looking into her soft, kind eyes that were asking the question she just uttered aloud in a totally different way.

"Yea," She answered weakly, a note of hope in her voice, "I can do that."

And so Santana and Brittany proceeded to pull the girls towards the sink and gently sooth their wounds, fix their makeup and clean away the blood. But Brittany, knowing her best friend and love more than anyone else, let her do most of the work. In a similar manner, upon seeing the look of concentration and softness in Santana's face, Quinn and Rachel knew to stay almost reverently silent, holding in even their whimpers of pain.

"She needed that," Brittany explained almost sadly, with a funny sort of smile on her face, when the three of them exited the bathroom, giving the other girl the privacy to wipe away her own tears, "She needed to know she was needed. It's the only way Santana really knows how to cope."


End file.
